The Open Qualifying Series: Syme maintains challenge at 99th Open de España with second round 68
Connor Syme continued his challenge for a second DP World Tour title, and heads into potentially his most important weekend as a professional at Club de Campo in Madrid. The Drumoig golfer shot a second round 68 to move to 8-under-par for the tournament, and sits one back of the 36-hole leader Grant Forrest, tied for second place with Swiss golfer Joel Girrbach. The winner of the 99th Open de España will earn an invitation to next April's Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, and the highest non-exempt finisher will qualify for The Open at the Old Course, St Andrews.
For Syme, this is like Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket in what could be a life-changing period for him on and off the course, with his wife Alanis at home heavily pregnant and expecting the birth of their first child any day now. "I don't know how much golf I'm going to play after this week. So yeah, just hopefully can still play to then and we'll see what happens", said Syme after his round.
[How much has it been on his mind] It wasn't leading up to obviously, even last week. I think on Monday she's full term, so that'll be, you start to think about it a bit more at that point, obviously so much can change. But yeah, seeing how things were, Sunday, Monday we were in the hospital for a couple of nights, obviously I’m just thinking about her a lot, she's doing well, she's keeping me well updated. It's obviously a really exciting time for us."
The 31-year-old Scot has endured a torrid season due to injury and loss of form, but began to turn things round with a top-10 at the NEXO Championship at Trump International Golf Links near Aberdeen in August, and at last week's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship he found a consistency which has largely been missing in 2026.
He began the second round at the 1st and birdied the 2nd, 4th and 6th, dropping shots at the 3rd and 8th to head out in 35, before coming home in 33 with birdies at the 14th and 18th. Connor was delighted with his round: "I got off to a really good start. The first couple of holes were quite difficult and I hit two really good shots into them. My bogeys were quite soft to be honest, but I did hole out from like 65 yards for birdie after hitting in the rough on one hole. Nice to see a 15 footer or so on the last drop and really pleased with that.
Yesterday afternoon was difficult. From what I've heard with the rain, they've done such a good job to be honest, but it makes our job quite difficult in terms of you need to find the fairways because it's obviously so wet and the rough. Yeah, it's different because normally we come here and it's super firm, so it's a slightly different challenge, but obviously I'm quite enjoying it. So yeah, it's definitely, there's a few fairways where we're starting to bounce into the rough a little bit more again, so I'm assuming it'll dry out a bit more over the weekend.
I think I'm just going to keep plugging away and doing my best. Obviously, I had a couple of good scores there [over past two days]. It's hard to know when a day like Thursday will come when you shoot five under for nine holes and you fly up the board or today was a bit more plodding along and then a couple came towards the end. I'm just going to keep the foot down."
Syme will play in the final group on Saturday with fellow Scot, and 36-hole leader, Grant Forrest. A 2-time winner on the DP World Tour, Forrest has also endured a tough season, and has only made three cuts since May. He bogeyed his opening hole on Friday but responded with birdies at the seventh and eighth, both set up by fine approaches, to turn in 35.
Further birdies followed at the tenth and 12th, the latter courtesy of a 32-foot putt, before he recovered from a bogey at the 13th for the second consecutive day with a birdie at the next. He then finished in style, getting up and down for birdie at the last.
"It was a good, really good score in the end" said Forrest. "You know, I didn't have my best stuff on our first five or six holes, but made a couple of really nice par saves to keep the momentum going, and then, yeah, I just managed to make quite a few birdies, started driving it well, you know, the last 12 holes and yeah, delighted with four under. I probably didn't play quite as well as yesterday.
I think there's some tough holes out there. You know, the tougher holes are playing into the wind and you just know if you can make no worse than a bogey then we're going to have plenty of chances and managed to do that and convert them so yeah, happy with that.
I checked the set-up sheet this morning and saw they were almost half a foot quicker and to be honest that's what we're used to here. I've been here I think five or six times now so It's quite weird playing them when they're so soft and a little bit slower, but I think by Sunday they'll dry out and they'll speed them up again and it'll be the Club de Campo that we're used to playing.
Switzerland's Joel Girrbach is bidding to win for the first time on the DP World Tour, and he shot a second round of 66 to move into contention.
Spanish hopes are still alive, with Eugenio Chacarra looking to take his already good year onto a new level, with a third win of the season and a place in The Masters and The Open next year. A win could also take him above Rory McIlroy and into genuine contention to win the DP World Tour Order of Merit, and become the first Spanish winner since Jon Rahm in 2019, and only the third Spaniard ever (Seve Ballesteros).
Chacarra shot a second round of 69 to tie for fourth place head into the weekend, and will begin Saturday 2 shots off the lead. Patrick Reed missed the cut in Madrid, and has set up what could be a pivotal week in the race to win the Harry Vardon Trophy at next week's DP World India Championship, where Reed and Chacarra will be joined by Rory McIlroy.
Scotland's Michael Stewart made the cut with a fine round of 70, and begins the weekend 9 shots off the lead, and 6 back of the top 10. Another top 10 would qualify Stewart for next week's DP World India Championship, and could even qualify for next season's DP World Tour.
SHANK, by Matt Hooper
Matt Hooper is an Associate Member of the Sports Journalists Association
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